Media recording element
View Patent ↗A media recording element having capabilities to facilitate recording media for subsequent playback. The recording element further including features associated with limiting operations of a hard drive or other similarly mechanical memory under certain operating conditions so as to limit power consumption and/or memory degradation.
1. A method comprising:
simultaneously causing, by a processor, storage of a first copy of media content to a mechanical memory for long-term storage related operations and a second copy of the media content to a non-mechanical memory for short-term storage related operations;
causing deactivation of a portion of the mechanical memory corresponding to the first copy of the media content; and
causing output of the second copy of the media content from the non-mechanical memory.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising causing diversion of previously-stored content from the non-mechanical memory to the mechanical memory in response to a long-term storage related operation.
3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising causing deactivation of a read element of the mechanical memory corresponding to the first copy of the media content.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising causing an increase of buffering to the non-mechanical memory during a period of time associated with activating the mechanical memory in response to a long-term storage related operation.
5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising causing partitioning of the non-mechanical memory to support buffering multiple content streams when multiple content streams are received by the non-mechanical memory.
6. A method comprising:
balancing, by a processor, between a mechanical memory for long-term storage related operations and a non-mechanical memory for short-term storage related operations by transmitting media content to the non-mechanical memory and to the mechanical memory;
causing simultaneous storage of the media content in the non-mechanical and mechanical memories; and
retrieving the media content from the non-mechanical memory after deactivating a portion of the mechanical memory corresponding to the media content.
7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the processor is comprised in a mobile phone or set-top box.
8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the media content comprises at least one of audio, video, or images.
9. The method of claim 6 , wherein the long-term storage related operations comprise device operations performed with content stored in the mechanical memory and not with content stored in the non-mechanical memory.
10. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
dynamically partitioning the non-mechanical memory as a function of a number of streams of content that are received by the non-mechanical memory.
11. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
activating the portion of the mechanical memory corresponding to the media content in response to receiving a long-term storage related operation; and
dynamically partitioning the non-mechanical memory to allocate additional storage space in the non-mechanical memory to store additional content as a function of a delay associated with the activation of the portion of the mechanical memory.
12. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
outputting data supporting picture-in-picture operations from at least two partitions of the non-mechanical memory to a device.
13. A method, comprising:
simultaneously causing, by a processor, storage of first media content obtained via a media content stream in a non-mechanical memory and in a mechanical memory, wherein the mechanical memory is configured for long-term storage and the non-mechanical memory is configured for short-term storage; and
accessing the first media content from the non-mechanical memory after deactivating a portion of the mechanical memory corresponding to the first media content.
14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising causing diversion of previously-stored content from the non-mechanical memory to the mechanical memory in response to a long-term storage related operation.
15. The method of claim 13 , further comprising: causing deactivation of a read element of the mechanical memory corresponding to the first media content.
16. The method of claim 13 , further comprising causing an increase of buffering to the non-mechanical memory during a period of time associated with activating the mechanical memory in response to a long-term storage related operation.
17. The method of claim 13 , further comprising causing partitioning of the non-mechanical memory to support buffering multiple content streams.
18. The method of claim 13 , wherein the media content stream comprises at least one of audio, video, or images.
19. The method of claim 13 , further comprising causing output of a portion of the media content stream from the non-mechanical memory to at least one of the mechanical memory and an output device in a first-in-first-out fashion.
20. The method of claim 13 , further comprising causing output of a portion of the media content stream from the non-mechanical memory to at least one of the mechanical memory and an output device in response to at least a partition of the non-mechanical memory being full.
21. The method of claim 6 , further comprising deactivating the portion of the mechanical memory corresponding to the media content in response to simultaneously recording and displaying the media content.
22. The method of claim 13 , further comprising deactivating the portion of the mechanical memory corresponding to the first media content in response to simultaneously recording and displaying the first media content.